Exit Interview: Geeta Schmidt Shares the Humio Story

In a recent episode of The DTC Podcast, Geeta Schmidt, co-founder and former CEO of Humio, shared the story behind how the Nordic company went from startup to globally scaled with an acquisition by CrowdStrike. Schmidt explained that Humio was born out of the pain that she and her co-founders experienced while working with log data in their previous jobs. They realized that none of the existing tools met their needs, so they set out to build a new product that would be faster, scalable, and more user-friendly – by putting the human back in the I/O, hence “Humio.”

DTC led Humio’s Series B in March of 2020 and the team set off to expand their platform to support new use cases, including cybersecurity, an area that had been attracting increasing attention from customers. That fall, just before Thanksgiving, CrowdStrike reached out with interest. The initial conversation that Wednesday morphed into a full-day session for the day after the American holiday on Friday. The acquisition closed the following February.

In this DTC Exit Interview, Schmidt described the acquisition as a “natural fit” due to the companies’ shared values and complementary technologies. She talks about the process of integrating the two companies and what they were able to achieve together.

Key Tactical Takeaways from Geeta Schmidt

Understand the customer’s pain: Build a product that solves a real problem for your customers. Even better if you understand it firsthand. Humio was born from the founders’ own frustrations with existing log management tools.

Build a product that is fast, scalable, and easy to use: Customers want a product that works well and is easy to use. Humio was designed from the ground up to be fast, scalable, and user-friendly.

Get early validation from customers: Talk to potential customers early and often to get feedback on your product. Even before you have a product, recruit friends and former colleagues into the conversation. 

Build a team with a diverse set of skills and experiences: A strong founding team is essential for building a successful startup. Humio’s founding team had a mix of technical, commercial, and sales expertise. This is something Schmidt looks for now as she considers early-stage investments.

Keep an open mind. The early Humio team had deep experience in DevOps, not cybersecurity. When companies began adopting the platform for security use cases, the team did the work to understand why and how they could better serve these unexpected customers.